Charity provides funeral for baby who died of starvation

A funeral service was held for 7-month-old Mya Edwards, whom prosecutors allege was starved to death by her parents. Rest in His Arms, a non-profit arranged the funeral. (Stacey Wescott, Chicago Tribune)

A funeral service was held for 7-month-old Mya Edwards, whom prosecutors allege was starved to death by her parents. Rest in His Arms, a non-profit arranged the funeral. (Stacey Wescott, Chicago Tribune)

Erin Chan DingSpecial to the Tribune

Deacon at funeral for baby who died of starvation: 'God, please, please, never let Mya be hungry again'

Inside lay a baby, Mya Gianna Edwards, whom prosecutors allege was starved to death by her parents.

Light streamed onto the coffin from a skylight at St. Anne’s Catholic Community, a church located a mile from where 7-month-old Mya was found in her Barrington home.

A procession of more than a dozen police cars accompanied a navy blue hearse to St. Anne’s on Thursday morning, and four Barrington police officers served as Mya’s pallbearers.

About 100 people, most who did not know Mya but knew of her story, as well as about 30 members of the Barrington Police Department, surrounded the coffin during Mya’s funeral mass, ensuring that a baby whose life ended so tragically would be shown some remembrance and love.

A procession of more than a dozen police cars accompanied a navy blue hearse to St. Anne's on Thursday morning, a mile from where 7-month-old Mya Gianna Edwards was found in her Barrington home.

“We never knew Mya, and yet her story, her brief, tragic story, it draws out emotions in us,” said Deacon Jim Pauwels, who sits on the board of Rest in His Arms, a nonprofit organization that was granted custody of Mya’s remains and organized her funeral.

“When we’re confronted with a case like Mya’s, a case of innocent suffering, a case of death coming where there should have been life and growth and promise, it’s not possible to not react.”

Pauwels called on the audience to react in practical and compassionate ways, like feeding and serving the hungry and spreading awareness of the Illinois Safe Haven Law, which allows adults to leave babies 30 days or younger at designated places like fire stations and hospitals without fear of prosecution, so long as the baby is unharmed.

After the funeral, one person who did know Mya — her uncle, Joaquin Edwards, 21, of Chicago — said he remembered that during the times he held her, “she smiled a lot.” Her passing, she said, made him “angry, disappointed, very hurt.”

He said he found out about his niece’s funeral through the news.

“I’m grateful for the service,” he said. “I appreciate everyone who helped out with burying my niece and everything, but I just wish my family were more involved.”

He said he was “just praying” for his brother, Gene M. Edwards, 22, who, along with the Mya’s mother, Markesha Jones, 19, was charged with involuntary manslaughter and felony child endangerment in the death of their child. Both remain in custody as they await trial on the charges.

On Jan. 8, Gene Edwards summoned paramedics to his home after Mya had stopped breathing. She was pronounced dead on a dining room table, authorities have said.

The baby’s twin sister, who was also found to be very skinny, prosecutors said, survived and has since been placed in the care of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. Her uncle said he is trying to get custody of her.

Prosecutors said two months before Mya died, her parents stopped giving her formula, instead feeding her a bottle filled with water, cereal and some baby food. The couple also kept the twins in a single crib in an unfinished basement warmed with only a space heater, authorities have said.

Nearly all the arrangements for Mya’s funeral had been donated by places like Glueckert Funeral Home in Arlington Heights and Evergreen Cemetery in Barrington, where she was interred.

With tears brimming in her eyes, Marion Cramer, the administrator at Evergreen, said, “I guess you never know what goes on in your town, you know, but we try to stick together and help our own.”

At St. Anne’s, Pauwels, gazing out at Mya’s tiny coffin, with a framed picture of the baby nearby, ended his eulogy with this: “God, please, please, never let Mya be hungry again.”